The Land Trust Alliance

The New Mexico Land Conservancy is a member of the Land Trust Alliance (LTA) which is a national umbrella organization for over 1500 land trusts in the United States.

The Land Trust Alliance promotes voluntary land conservation and strengthens the land trust movement by providing the leadership, information, skills and resources land trusts need to conserve land for the benefit of communities and natural systems.

The LTA is developing a voluntary land trust accreditation program, under the guidance of the LTA's Board of Directors. The purpose of this accreditation program is to ensure public accountability in voluntary land conservation, to build strong and lasting land conservation organizations, and to publicly recognize land trusts that meet specific ethical, legal and technical practices.

The accreditation program will be managed by a commission of diverse land trust professionals with independent decision-making authority, incorporated as a subsidiary of LTA. The commission will be responsible for ensuring the highest level of accountability for the accreditation program and operating a system that is fair, consistent and responsive to participant needs. Initial commissioners will be appointed by LTA. Once the program is operational, the majority of commissioners will be elected by accredited land trusts and the balance appointed by LTA.

Accreditation will provide an independent review of a land trust's compliance with Land Trust Standards and Practices and verify the land trust's successful implementation of 42 practices that indicate its ability to operate in an ethical, legal and technically sound manner and ensure the long-term protection of land in the public interest.

The commission will establish the procedures for accreditation in 2006, test these procedures with an initial round of applications in 2007, and begin full operations by 2008.

The New Mexico Land Conservancy intends to pursue accreditation through the LTA's Accreditation program when the program becomes fully operational in 2008. In the meantime, the New Mexico Land Conservancy's Board of Directors has already made the commitment to operate in an ethical, legal and technically sound manner by passing a resolution to adopt the LTA's Standards and Practices.

To be directed to the Land Trust Alliance's website click here.